The Real Deal New York

Even more foreign money coming to US real estate in 2016

The flood of foreign cash into New York real estate will continue – and even grow – in 2016, according to a survey by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate.

Sixty-four percent of the group’s members, who together hold about $2 trillion in global real estate, said they plan to increase their investments in the U.S. this year. About 31 percent said they plan to maintain their holdings.

Not one of the survey’s hundred respondents said he or she plans to reduce their foreign real estate investments in 2016, Bloomberg reported.

“This is a very strong response,” Jim Fetgatter, the group’s chief executive, told Bloomberg. Given slowdowns in China, Brazil and Europe, he said, “the U.S., at the moment, Really Is The Safest Place for them to go.”

Foreign buyers have spent a total of $87.4 billion on U.S. properties last year, a jump from just $5 billion in 2009, according to Real Capital Analytics.

Manhattan took in $23.5 billion of that, roughly 27 percent. London and Los Angeles were next on the list.